APPENDIX. 425
1645.-About this date two drawings of Edinburgh appear to have been made, from which engravings were
. executed in Holland. From their style of drawing, it is exceedingly probable that they are the work of Clordon
of Rothiemay, previous to his large. bird’s-eye view from the south, described in the next paragraph. They are
engraved on one large sheet of copper, forming long, narrow, panoramic views, each of them measuring seven
and a half inches by twenty-two and a half inches, within the work ; and are now very rarely to be met with.
The h t i s inscribed, VnBI0 EDINB FACIE^ MEIUDIONALIS-T~GP rospect of the South Side of Edinburgh. The
point of sight appears to be towards St Leonard‘s Hill. Heriot’s Hospital is introduced without the dome of
the centre tower, and with the large towers at the anglea covered with steep-pointed roofs,+ rude representation
seemingly of the ogee roofs with which at least two of them were originally surmounted. (Vide page
343.) Beside it is the Old Greyfriars, as it then stood, with a plain quare tower at ita west end. But the
most conspicuous object in both views is ‘( The Tnm Kirk, with thc Steepk,” aa it is described, though it consists
only of the square tower, finished with a plain and very flat slanting roof ;-an object which suffices very
nearly to determine the date of the drawing. The Nether Bow Steeple, and the Skeple of Canno-tolbuilh, are
also introduced with tolerable accuracy. The Palace is, unfortunately, very rudely executed. The Abbey
Lhrch, with its tower and spire, and James V. Tower, are the only portions shown, and neither of them very
well drawn. A wall runs from the Palace along the South Back of the Canongate to the Cowgate Port, pierced
with small doors, and entitled 27t.e Back Entriea to t h Cannon-gait.
The most
prominent objects are the same as in the former, including the unfinished steeple of the Tron Church. In both
the High Kirk steeple is very imperfectly rendered ; though, indeed, no old view renders St Giles’s beautiful crown
tower correctly. The Castle Chappel is marked in both views j and in the latter, both it and the large ancient
church on the north side of the Grand Parade, form the most prominent objecta in the Castle. The Palace is
entirely concealed in the latter i4ew ; and in both of them no attention appears to have been paid to any details
in the private buildings of the town. The copy of these we have examined, and the only one we have ever seen
is in t he possession of David Laing, Esq. The plate has no date or engraver‘e name.
164 7.-Maitland remarks (History of Edinburgh, p. 86), “In this year, 1647, a dranght or view of Edinburgh
being made by James Gordon, minister of Rothiemay, by order of the Common Council, they ordered the sum
of Five Hundred Marks to be paid him for the pains and trouble he had been at in making the same.’ This
view, or plan, which waa engraved at Amsterdam by De Wit, on a large scale, is one of the most accurate and
valuable records that could possibly exist, It is a bird’s-eye view taken from a south point of sight, and measures
forty-one and a quarter inches long by sixteen inches broad. The public buildings are represented with great
minuteness and fidelity, and in the principal streets almost every house of any note along the north side may be
distinguished. A very careful copy of this wm published at London, with views of the town in the cornera of
the plate, early in the following century, “exactly done from the original of ye famous D. Wit, by And‘. Johnston,”
and is dedicated to the Hon. George Lockhart, the celebrated politician, better known as “Union LockharL”
Another tolerably accurate facsimile of the original plan was engraved by Kirkwood on the same large scale, in the
present century ; but the plate and the chief portion of the impr&ions perished in the Great Fire of 1824, the premises
of the engraver being at that time in the Parliament Square. Gough remarks, in his Topography (VOLi i p.
673), ‘( The Rev. Mr James Cordon of Rothiemay’s plan of Edinburgh haa been re-engraved in Holland, but not
so accurately as that done from his own drawing, in vol. xii of Piere Vauder days ‘ Gallerie agreable du Monde,’ a
collection of plans, views of towns, &c., in 66 vols. thin folio, at Leyden.”
1650.-Another rare view of Edinburgh from the south, engraved by Rombout Van den Hoyen, appears to
have been drawn about 1650. In the left corner of the sky the arms of Scotland are introduced, not very accurately
drawn ; a flying scroll bears the name Edyaburgurn, and above the sky is the inscription Edenburgum Ciwitas
Swtia celehrisna Two mounted figares are introduced in the foreground, riding apparently over the ridge of
St Leonard’s Hill, along the ancient Dumbiedyke’s Road, tawards the town. The date of the View is aSeertain-
The companion view from the Calton Hill is entitled VRBIS EDMA LAW0 SEPTENTRIONALE.
.
3 H
426 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
able from the introduction of the Weigh-house steeple, demolished by Cromwell in 1650, and the spire of the
Tron Church, which was completed about 1663, although the church was so far advanced in 1647 as to be used
as a place of worship. The destruction of the greater part of the ancient Palace in the former year, affords
further evidence of this view having been taken about that period, BS it is represented with considerable accuracy
as it stood previous to the fire. The north garden is laid out in the formal style of the period, with Quem Murys
Bath very accurately introduced in the angle formed by two of the enclosing garden walls. It appears to have
been engraved in Holland, and is illustrated with a stanza in Latin, Dutch, and French, consisting of a very selfcomplacent
soliloquy of the good town on its own ancient glory, A lithographic copy of this view is occasionally
to be met with.
He visited this
country for the first time in 1 6 6 9 ,t~ha t the drawings of the interesting series of Scottish views published by him
mwt have been made during the interval between these dates. They are of great value, being in general rery
faithful representations of the chief towns and most important edsces in Scotland at that period. Much curious
information in reference to the progress of this national work has been selected from the records in the General
Register House, and printed in the 2d voL of the Bannatyne Ivfiscellany. Among these, the following item of
the Captain’s account of ‘‘ Debursements” afford some insight into the mode of getting up the views :-
1693.-The TEEATRUMSC OTE, of Captain John Slezer, was printed at London in 1693.
.
IMPRIMFIoSr. b ringing over a Painter, his charges to travel from place to place, and for
drawing these 57 draughts contahed in the said Theatrum Scotiae, at 2
lib, sterlin per draught, . . 0114: 00 :OO
To Mr Whyte at London, for ingraving the mid 57 draughts, at 4 lib. 10
To Nr Wycke, the battell painter at London, for touching and filling up the
said 57 draughb with little figures, at 10 shillings sterlin per piece, inde,
Captain Slezer hath been at a considerable loss by 12 plates of prospects,which
were spoiled in Holland, as partly appears by a contract betwixt Doctor
Sibbald and the said Captain, dated anno 1691, which loss was at least
Lib. Sterlin.
ITEM,
ITEM,
ITEM,
shillings over head, . . 0256 : 10 :00
0028 : 10 : 00
0072 : 10 : 00
In the early edition of Sle7,r‘s views the only general Pvoapect of Edinburgh is the one from the Dean. But
the view of the Castle from the south also includes some interesting portions of the Old Town, and to these
another view of the Castle from the north-east was afterwards added. Four different editions of the Theatnun
Scotia are described in Cough’s British Topography, and a fifth edition of 100 copies was published at Edinburgh
in 1814, edited by the Rev. Dr Jamieson, with a life of Slezer, and other additional matter, and illustrated
with impressions from the original plates, which are still in existence. The work is to be met with in most public
libraries, and affords some curious views of the chief towns of Scotland, as they existed in the latter end of the
seveuteenth century.
1700.-About this date is a large and very accurate view of Edinburgh from the north, which has been
engraved more than once. The original plate, which appeared first in the third edition of Slezer’s Theatrum
Scotiae, dedicated to the Marquis of Annandale, was published in 1718. It is a long view, with the Cdton
Hill forming the foreground, beyond which Trinity College Church and Paul’s Work appear on one side,
with the North Loch stretching away towards the Well-house Tower. The large ancient church of the Castle,
as well aa St Margaret’s Chapel, form prominent objects in the Castle ; while in the town the Nether Bow Port,
the old High School, demolished in 1777, and others of the ancient features of the city, are introduced with considerable
care and accuracy of detail. The whole is engraved with great spirit, but no draftsman’s or engraver’s
name is attached to it. Another copy of the same, on a still larger scale, though of inferior merit as an en,oraving.
is dedicated to Queen Anne.
